Loneliness is an Unwanted Companion
by islashlove
Summary: For just about all his life, loneliness has been a constant companion to The Doctor.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing belonging to Doctor Who **

**Warning: None **

**Beta: Yes and thank you to jerseybelle for all her work. **

**Author's Notes: This is story had been done for the word of the week for the group Fanfiction .net Writers Unite on Facebook. **

**Story Notes: For just about all his life, loneliness has been a constant companion to The Doctor. **

**Loneliness is an Unwanted Companion: by islashlove **

**Chapter one: Loneliness **

Loneliness, it is an echo. It can echo through time and space. Through every soul and leaves those it touches, gasping for companionship; for some sort of connection to who you are. To fill the hole that is deep in your mind, heart and soul.

But you don't need to be alone, to feel the cold touch of loneliness. You could be in a room filled with your best friends and family and still have loneliness wrap its arms of despair around you and not let go.

Loneliness is a companion that no one wants, yet, everyone is touched by this companion at least once in their life time. For most, it is truly just because they are alone. For others, nothing they do or whomever they are with will shake the loneliness off.

They're the ones that loneliness becomes a constant companion for the rest of their lives. Some learn to live with it. Others, well…they find another way out, but no matter what they do, it will always be there.

At least for humans it is just for one life time, but for a Time Lord like The Doctor, it can and will last for many lifetimes.

When The Doctor started his life, he had a loving family and many friends, including The Master. If, back then, they had both known what their lives were going to be like, would they have still chosen the same path, or would they have tried to change it? Regardless, they had lived the lives that they chose and there was no going back.

The Doctor had grown up happy. He married, had a family and was never touched by the feeling of loneliness. But like everything, things change. His wife had passed away and then their daughter, leaving him to raise his granddaughter, Susan, alone.

He wanted to give her the same experience he had as a child, traveling the universe, both in space and in time, but the laws had changed and it was against the law. It was now that The Doctor started to question his people's laws about not interfering with other worlds. Making up his mind, The Doctor defied his people and stole a T.A.R.D.I.S. so he and Susan could travel.

They were happy to a point, but even then, the grip of loneliness was starting to take hold of The Doctor's heart. The Doctor felt it right from the start, he just didn't understand why he was feeling it, so he tried as well as he could to push it away and hide it.

Each new companion that came on board the T.A.R.D.I.S. made it easier to fight the loneliness, but with each departure, it grew stronger, slowly overpowering him. Finally, The Doctor was no longer fighting the loneliness; in fact, he was welcoming it with open arms, as if it was his destiny to be lonely.

After the time war, he was truly alone, the last of his kind, the last Time Lord. He knew that the loneliness had won and he started to give way to despair. He had nothing left, no friends, no family and no world. He was truly…alone.

He still kept on traveling with the old familiar companion that had been with him right from the start. And to make sure that he knew that loneliness was always going to be there, The Doctor often visited the rooms of his companions of the past and remembered how they left.

Some, on good terms as they moved on with their lives like Susan leaving to be with the man she loved. Others, in anger, because they were tired of the lives they were living or sick of all the death that seemed to follow the doctor, like Tegan.

Others didn't leave because they wanted to, they were taken from him, even by the Time Lords, like Jamie or Sarah Jane, or died because The Doctor hadn't taken the time to listen or pay attention to them. Even now, after all these years and the lives he had lived, The Doctor still wished he could go back and save Adric, but he couldn't then and he can't now.

The Doctor had taken his loneliness and did what the Time Lords had failed to do. He started to interfere in the lives of other worlds, mainly Earth's, to keep it safe from aliens that would destroy it and it was during one of these times he met a young girl called Rose Tyler.

He didn't know how she did it, but she did. Somehow, Rose Tyler managed to break through all the years and lifetime of loneliness and touched his lonely heart. Rose Tyler had pushed away the loneliness and gave The Doctor hope once again.

The loneliness was still there, waiting for when Rose would leave and she would leave, they always did. It will be then that loneliness will take back over and become his only companion again.

When Rose left, it was worse than losing all the others, even Adric, combined, as he had sentenced Rose to exile in another dimension. As the years passed and his lives changed, The Doctor gained many more companions and as time moved on, he lost them as well. Leaving him with the only companion he has known the whole time, loneliness.

The Doctor knew that he would have many more companions before his time in the universe is finished and when that time came, loneliness would be right there beside him. But until that day, The Doctor, his loneliness and whoever is next in line to join them would continue on their journey through space and time, protecting the human race as they expanded further and further into the universe and beyond.

**The End **

**Thank you for reading and reviewing my story.**


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